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Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Big City Chophouse

A typical good, solid steak house. The meat was of great quality, steaks were cooked to perfection and the drinks were well made. Unfortunately, nothing was out of the ordinary – the result left the experience a little plain.

Review:

Appearance:
Sitting next to Crave, the exterior wasn’t anything spectacular. Upon entering, the atmosphere also was lacking a little something. The bar was immediately in front of you, in it’s own room and the rest of the restaurant to your right. Mixture of booths and tables lined the rows. There was a lack of dimension to the place.

Staff:
No one actually greeted me. The host/ess stand was empty. I stood around looking from bar to restaurant until the people I was meeting called my name and ushered me to the table.

Our waitress was very nice, but a little too robotic. Perhaps it was because she was training someone new and wanted to do everything by the book. Just came off a little too intense, but friendly all the same.

Meal:

Appetizer:
We held back on ordering an appetizer – it was a work function and we were somewhat limited for time. We did get salads and I got the traditional ceasar salad, which I might add had a great dressing. The croutons were cheap though, had a stale taste to them, as if the bag they came had been opened for a while. Not much flavor on them.

Entrée:
I got the Blue Cheese Encrusted Filet of Sirloin with a starch or vegetable.

Again with the options of a starch and vegetable. You ask what they are and they rattle off a bunch of possible combinations. Yikes – I chose the Red Skinned Smashed Potatoes.

The meat was cooked to perfection! I haven't had a steak this good since Mitchell's Steakhouse in Columbus, OH. You may know, I enjoy my meat rare and this piece was perfectly seared on both sides, warm all the way through. Excellent! I like the crust of blue cheese on top as well, usually it’s just crumbled on top, not ‘baked’. A nice way to differentiate.

The potatoes were exactly as they said, Red Skinned Smashed. Nothing too fancy really and they gave you a lot of them! It looked as if I didn’t even touch them when they took my plate away.

Desserts:
They came out with the desert plate, which is a great sales tactic. Once you see how delicious everything looks, how can you say no? The decision was to choose one to split; I let the ladies choose the Peanut Butter Pie. If you’re a fan of this, you’d like it. I’m not so much a fan of the PB Pie, but from what I tasted and heard, I’ll give it credit.

Drinks:
Contrary to Cilantro, the martini I ordered was perfect. Straight up with a twist. Declicious. I asked for a glass of their Shiraz and it was really nice. I didn’t see the name, so I can’t say for sure what it was, but it was very good for being by the glass.

Prices:
Work dinner, so I got off easy on this one. But the prices were very reasonable. My 8oz Filet of Sirloin was $21.95, and a 10oz Filet Mignon was only $29.99. The meat was great quality, so these prices are very competitive.

Overall Experience:
Ultimately, it’s your typical steak house, not too much in terms of style, but the food is solid and the prices of the steak are very reasonable for the quality of the meat. Unfortunatley, the service wasn't anything outstanding and there was no one even to greet me as I walked in. As I said in tehe beginning, it was a little plain.

2 comments:

It's great to see another fellow food blogger doing the Akron scene. I like how you've compartmentalized your reviews so that you make sure you hit various areas of your experience. One item you might want to correct though is your spelling of "desert". A desert is a dry, arid sandy piece of land that doesn't get much rain. A dessert is the sweet treat you eat after your meal.